Don't Know What You've Got Until It's Gone
by shyesplease
Summary: But Alex was lucky. The person she cherished the most, her brother Justin, came back each time she thought she had lost him forever. And each time she learned just how much more he meant to her. JALEX! R&R! ONESHOT!


You don't know what you've got until it's gone. You don't realize what was good until it's bad. You take the minor details for granted, only wishing later to cherish them. True feelings surface and regrets flourish. The what-could-have-beens and the I-wish-I dids race through your mind.

You think 'how can someone not know what they already had unless they were blind?', but essentially you are blind, in a sense. Blinded by what you accept as normal. It's only when normalcy tips its rocker and changes your reality is when you realize just what you indeed had.

But Alex was lucky. The person she cherished the most, her brother Justin, came back each time she thought she had lost him forever. And each time she learned just how much more he meant to her.

When the genie manipulated her words and made everyone forget Justin, Alex had to admit, she was extremely happy. Up to that point, Justin was just someone she felt she had an obligation to like because they were blood and shared the same adobe and all that good stuff. But she never felt like she loved him as easily as it was with Max. As if she would be lying to herself if she said she loved Justin like Max.

He got under her skin, was the image of the perfect child and student, and she couldn't stand it. And all he ever did was throw his accomplishments into her face and kept rubbing them there until she couldn't forget them. How could you love someone like that? Even if they were blood?

But that mentality all changed when he turned invisible. She couldn't see him. She couldn't see those damn eyes bulging out of his sockets in fear or surprise. She couldn't see his jaw lock in place as he tried to compose himself. She couldn't see his lip curl back into a snarl when he finally broke down and yelled at her. She couldn't see him do any of the things she just realized she loved about him. Sure, they were the things that he did when she pranked him, but his reactions were what kept her going day after day. She needed him. She needed to _see_ him.

And even though he wasn't necessarily all gone, it just wasn't the same.

She cried and cried for her parents to realize that he was her brother. And that she missed him. And that she wanted him back.

And as they popped out of the Genie's bottle after hitting the reset button, he was there. Still as dorky as she remembered, but that's exactly what she wanted. Not a hair different.

She couldn't contain herself; she ran into his arms. It wasn't as long as an embrace that she would have hoped, but the mere seconds his warm arms were around her frame were enough to make her realize for sure that she indeed loved her brother.

The second time she almost lost him, he was completely gone. Body, voice, everything. Vanished.

It was her selfishness that took over again, but this time she wished her parents had never met. And now, as a result, they were all starting to evaporate from existence. But what happened was something she couldn't ever predict.

Max had vanished before the competition and she wanted to cry, but knew it was not the time when she could very well be next if they didn't hurry. It hurt to see him warped up into the tornado and whisked away into nothingness. But not enough to sit and pout. They had a job to do.

It wasn't until after the competition, after she won said competition, did her heart burn in pain. Justin had forgotten her. He didn't know who she was. She never thought such a simple thing could hurt so much.

She cried and cried; big fat tears trailing down her face as she begged him to remember her. She spilled everything on how she felt about him; how she was jealous of him and envied him greatly. And by a miracle, he believed her. She doesn't know and frankly she doesn't even care, but she runs to him and holds him.

She clings to him in desperation, hesitant to let go, frightened to death that if she does he'll change his mind or worse, disappear.

And just like that, he's also whisked away from her. Snatched up in the tornado. Her greatest fears coming true. Her heart is crippled to the core and her tears are gliding down even faster. She yells, "Justin, no!" He reaches out to her, but he's gone.

GONE.

…gone…

She can't think. Her mind just keeps going back to the previous events before. How they traveled through the jungle, working together like they've never done before. Their vulnerabilities out on display for each other for the first real time.

Her mind no matter what though, keeps going back to the campfire. The fire, the stars, the moon, his eyes, the funny way her heart was racing and hands were sweating. The want of his arms around her, to protect her. His words, "It's you and I."

She breaks down. She can't perform the spell. She just lost the most important person in her life and doesn't have enough strength to bring him back. She just wants to curl up in the mud and let that tornado suck her away too. Take away this pain. She doesn't want this constricted feeling suffocating her heart. There is no life worth living without Justin.

This is when she realized she loved her brother, but not as a brother like she thought before. She loved him. Truly, deeply loved him, and she couldn't live without him.

And when her mother throws the Stone of Dreams at her, it would be easy to wish everything to a much simpler way, but she feels she's been selfish enough ,and really, all she wants is him back. Nothing different. Not even a hair.

Because it's so much more than that.

* * *

**A/N: **This was just a little idea that came to mind. I started it a few months ago and finally got time to finish it! Hope you enjoyed it! PLEASE REVIEW with your thoughts! :)


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